Well, it’s official, I just morphed into a hippie! I know, I’m a little behind the times but hey, I was raising little kids when all that hippie stuff was happening. My sweet little Chevy Cavalier is history and a 1993 burgundy Chevy Astro van now lives in the driveway. Our relationship jelled immediately as we had so much in common. We are old, we both have many miles on our odometers, and a few scratches evidence our living life to the fullest. Maybe I can paint over those scratches with psychedelic colors! Astro, as I will call him, is in really good shape (according to Honest John, the Used Car Salesman!). I found it on Craigs list at Fountain Hills Auto Sales about two hours from me.
Actually, Jerry stayed late on a Friday night a week ago to fill me in on all the pros and cons and after a friend and I both drove it; I decided it was what I needed. While I thoroughly enjoyed my car/tent trip loop around the country last summer, I didn’t set the tent up in bad weather, instead, I rented a motel room. They are not only expensive but I really do hate cold, lifeless, and personalityless motels. Having the van eliminates motels and may eventually even eliminate the tent. The “fixing up” will be an on-going project and may not all happen before I leave.
The two fold-down seats in this seven-passenger van are temporarily stored in the sunroom. I’ll decide what to do with them when I get back in the fall. This one-owner Michigan vehicle is very clean and in pretty good shape on the inside so for starters, I’ll add a rug to cover where the seat hooks are in the floor, and Velcro some curtains in place. Yesterday I bought a portable “loo” and a power inverter that plugs into my cigarette lighter for keeping my laptop, cell phone (Yes, I’m finally getting one of those, too), camera, etc. powered up. More on all this next week.
In the meantime, springtime in the desert goes on. The saguaro are blooming with blossoms that look more ceramic than real. Innumerable quail babies have hatched and run behind their parents like dark golf balls with feet. The coyotes are so well fed in the desert that I have only seen one recently getting a drink in the park outside my office window. I’m glad he didn’t come at the same time as the enormous jack rabbit who comes for an afternoon drink. A dozen bunnies play within my eyesight any time I sit quietly for a few minutes. Yesterday when I prepared to open the sliding door, I froze in place. A roadrunner, usually very skittish, was within a foot of me. She had a lizard in her beak and did a little dance as if she wanted to come inside. She did that for five minutes, then decided I might be dangerous after all and fled. I went out to my office and there she was in the path, still with dinner in her beak, seemingly confused about what she wanted to do.
Just like the rest of us, she is sometimes confused about where she wants to eat dinner. Have a great week and God Bless until next time.
Web site: www.full-time-rver.com
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At 45, Widow Minshall began 20 years of solo full-time RVing throughout Alaska, Mexico, and Canada. Sharlene canoed the Yukon, mushed sled dogs, worked a dude ranch, visited Hudson Bay polar bears, and lived six months on a Mexican beach. She lectured at Life on Wheels, published six RV-related books and wrote a novel, “Winter in the Wilderness.”
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